Today’s Headlines

  • Reforming Parking Requirements Could Help Housing Affordability, If Pols Will Let It (Capital)
  • Industry City Wants Acres of New Parking on City Land as It Redevelops (Bklyn Daily, Crain’s)
  • MTA Tests Bike Rack on Bus Across Verrazano (Advance); For Alternate Reality, Check the Post
  • Straphangers Campaign, MTA Board Members Urge Cuomo to Renew Prendergast’s Contract (News)
  • Uptown Community Boards Can Be the Biggest Obstacle to Vision Zero (Spectator)
  • Study: MTA Bus Time Led to a 2 Percent Increase in Ridership (CityLab)
  • Ferries: Highly-Subsidized, Serving Wealthier Neighborhoods — And Popular Among Pols (Slate)
  • Countdown to When Entire Subway Will Get Countdown Clocks Stuck at “Not Yet” (Gothamist)
  • Study: Charging Fee to Drive in London’s CBD Has Reduced Traffic Crashes Citywide (Guardian)
  • For an Overpowered, Stop-and-Go Luxury Drive Across Midtown, Check In to the St. Regis (WSJ)
  • Lincoln Center Found a Convenient Place to Dump Its Snow: In the Middle of Columbus Ave (WNBC)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • com63

    From the post:
    “Drivers on the S53 bus line, which runs between Port Richmond and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, will be required under the pilot plan to wait for passengers to load their wheels.”

    Anyone who has ridden a bus in this city knows that a cyclist will be able to load their bike during the time that other passengers are boarding and paying. They may be the last person on, but it will hardly be an inconvenience. Do the drivers say the same thing about people in wheelchairs?

  • com63

    And if it truly becomes a time issue, they can make a rule that bikes need to board only at major stops where there are lots of other passengers boarding.

  • Re the NYPost piece on the bus bike pilot program – “If the bike falls off, it’s on us. If it gets damaged, it’s on us.”

    Sounds like a load of baloney, the kind the Post loves to print. No way a bus driver, who is instructed not to exit his bus, is going to be held responsible for a bike put on an outer rack by it’s rider.

  • Jeff

    Exactly–given that this is not a full-on “bikes on busses” program (which, as a cyclist who has experienced this in other cities, I really don’t think we want), but rather a way to simply get bikes over the bridge, I think a great compromise would be to limit the service to one or two stops on each side of the bridge.

  • Bolwerk

    I always liked Prendergast, but under Cuomo he turned into something of a lickspittle.

  • Bolwerk

    Why are they needed on buses? I understand the subway, where there is plenty of space usually, but a bike can be a massive hindrance on a bus.

    I can understand allowing them on buses in cases like the Verranzano where there is no allowable bike route and no subway option. Otherwise, I don’t even see why cyclists would generally care about this feature. A good cyclist can probably outrun many buses.

  • kevd

    In other places, some buses travel much greater distances and have much worse coverage.
    So to get where you need to go, one rides a couple miles to the bus, rides the bus 10 miles, then rides another mile or two on the other end.

    In NY this is only even being considered as a way to get across bridges without bus / ped lanes.

  • Jonathan R

    My take on this is that the bike-rack-on-buses idea is imported from other cities which don’t have subway systems (and also much less crowded buses).

    I ride the Q44, which used to have bike racks, and bring my folding bike on board. It is less of a hassle on the Q44 which uses articulated buses; I can stash the bike in the articulation so it is not blocking anybody’s seat. If they brought the racks back I suppose I would try it.

    Ultimately, though, you can’t carry enough bicycles on buses to make a big difference in commuting. Three bikes per rack, seven buses per hour, that’s about 50 bikes per rush hour in each direction. Go back to the Manhattan Bridge video that was posted on Streetsblog last autumn and you’ll see about 50 bikes in five minutes.

  • It makes perfect sense for a person like me. I can see Bay Ridge from my living room window in Staten Island. To get there by bike I have to take the ferry to Manhattan, then ride over the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn, then ride a great distance or take my bike on a long R train ride.

    It’s really about making a public thoroughfare (The Verrazano Narrows Bridge) accessible to cyclists. Everybody has a right to access public thoroughfares (with exceptions), this increases the number of people who can exercise that right.

  • HamTech87

    What’s such bs is that these bike racks on buses are on the fleets of most US cities.

  • Bolwerk

    Hmm, yeah, well, other places might be able to do it well. Bikes present something of a logistical issue on NYC’s inner city buses. Even one bike can make boarding or alighting on a bus difficult – for the cyclist and the riders.

    Something like NJT suburban transit buses might be different. You can understandably board, take your bike to the way back, and get off at either PABT. (But then, those buses aren’t configured well for standees.)

  • Mike

    Industry City is one place that definitely does not require more parking. There are always empty parking spots on the streets nearby, and it’s just a couple blocks from the subway. Throw in the Brooklyn Greenway (hopefully) eventually running right past it, there’s zero need for more parking.

  • Bolwerk

    That makes perfect sense. Maybe I misread him, but he seemed to be implying most buses should have bike accommodations. I don’t think that would be a good idea.

  • niccolomachiavelli

    We are to assume that Bolwerk has risen to his exalted blogger status without licking anyone’s spittle. Congratulations, I’m sure the 6 million people you move every day are proud.

  • Well, don’t expect Post readers to consider that.

  • Bolwerk

    Serious question: was there a point to that? You’re insulted? You think Prendergast has a history of exerting independence from his boss? You just pick a random person on the internet to be a dick to every day and my number came up? What is it?

  • niccolomachiavelli

    I’m not insulted at all, to have you call me out as a dick I find quite flattering actually. You started out saying you liked him and then went on to insult him. Contradictory, dueling ad hominems. Maybe someday, if I’m lucky I’ll get the same thing but in reverse. Though I’m not sure whT the opposite of a sick is, maybe you can illuminate.
    Regardless you will never have to defend why Mr. Pendergast has risen to the position of “lickspittle” (a quality, if antiquated insult) by your standards. How much do expect the head of the MTA to take on the Governor of New York, and over what issue what issue would you have chosen to fall on your sword?

  • Bolwerk

    That kind of asinine rambling followed by a sort of fair question seems to put to lie your denials about your hert utt-bay. If you were wondering, couldn’t you have just asked?

    Okay, setting that aside: Prendergast should be working for we the riders, not for Cuomo. His responsibility is not to the governor. Someone on SAS gave a pretty good summary of the kinds of things Prendergast did. I do like Prendergast, but I don’t think he’s not really very cut out for this job.

    Also, you don’t seem to know what ad hominem means.

  • niccolomachiavelli

    Perhaps I don’t, I just meant an unfounded attack on a person, I may havE miss used it. I apologize. As to who the MTA CEO works for we will see in June if the riders hold some sort of plebiscite on who the next Chairman will be, the riders could, and might do much worse than Mr. Prendegast, but I believe the decision will be largely that of the Governor. Maybe someday a Chairman will be appointed for his “independence” (a word you throw around about as smoothly and with equal support to “lickspittle”) from a Governor. Precisely how that would allow the governor to then be responsible for writing the checks is lost on me. I guess your vision is a Chairman that runs the system for the riders and a Governor that signs the checks, works for me, sounds sort of Platonic actually, but perhaps I M misusing that word as well. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not of that spring.

  • Bolwerk

    It referred to a pattern of behavior, so it wasn’t exactly “unfounded.” That pattern of behavior is relevant to how he does his job, so I don’t see how you can dismiss it as simply “personal” either like his skin color or weight or something.

  • niccolomachiavelli

    “I always liked Prendergast, but under Cuomo he turned into something of a lickspittle.” Is there a pattern of behavior here? Is it the “something” part that describes the pattern? I’m an ESL so it’s a tough language to follow sometimes.

  • Bolwerk

    Most people here are pretty informed about Prendergast’s relationship to the governor. If you aren’t, I provided a link to someone who I thought summarized it pretty well.